Vol. XIII. No. 309. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



67 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT. 



CAYENNE PEPPER. 



As the result of a letter recentlj- received from the 

 Fresno Countj- Chamber of Commerce enquiring for inform- 

 ation with regard to the planting, growing and harvesting of 

 Cayenne pepper in view of the experiments about to be 

 made in California, the following article has been prepared 

 as likely to prove of general interest, and to attract renewed 

 attention to the cultivation of peppers in the 'NN'est Indies. 



Cayenne pods consist of the ripe fruits of various 

 species of Capsicum (N. O. Solanaceae) and cultural varieties 

 of these. The species are believed to be indigenous to 

 Central and South America, but are now commonly culti- 

 vated throughout tropical and sub-tropical countrie.s, large 

 quantities being grown for export in India, Xj-asaland, 

 Uganda, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Japan, Turkey in Europe, 

 and elsewhere, whilst considerable quantities are also grown 

 for local consumption in these countries and in Spain and 

 southern France. Three types of these fruits come into 

 commerce, distinguished as large, small, and round, the first 

 two kinds being more common than the third. In the 

 south of England large pods are commonlj' known as 

 'Capsicums' and the small ones as 'Chillies', but in some 

 part.s of the country these names are used in the reverse 

 sense. (Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, Vol. X, 1912, 

 p. 57L) 



In considering the different places where Cayenne pepper 

 can be produced, it should be borne in mind that they can 

 be cultivated successfully in temperate countries. In 

 England the annual kinds are sown from March to the 

 middle of April, under a frame. They can be planted out 

 when 2 or 3 inches high, and in June may be transferred to 

 a light, rich soil in the open garden. They flower in July 

 or August, and produce pods from August to the end of 

 September. The perennial and shrubby kind may be 

 wintered in a conservatory. {Kucydopedia Jiritannica, 

 Tol. V. p. 280.) 



It is perhaps in East Africa and Zanzibar that the 

 greatest developments have taken place recently in regard 

 to the cultivation of Capsicum.-?. Nyasaland is of course 

 noted for its Chillie experts, though the area under 

 this crop fluctuates very much; but it is a good secondary 

 product, especially when there is ample Ubour at picking time, 

 as thi" operation is tedious and expensive. In Nyasaland 

 there is an increasing tendency to cultivate Capsicums in the 

 place of Chillies, as the cost of harvesting the former is lower, 

 and it is an easy matter to dry them in tobacco flue-curing 

 barns. Both crops are hardy in Nyasaland, and require 

 very little care in cultivation; they flourish in almost any 

 kind of soil; and grow especially well on rocky hillocks which 

 cannot be planted with cotton or tobacco. (Bulletin of the 

 Imperial Institute, Vol. IX, 1911, p. 386.) 



An examination of the reports of many of the Agricul- 

 tural Departments in East Africa provides very little informa- 

 tion on the cultivation and harvesting of this crop; apparently 

 there has not been a great deal of experimental work done in 

 this direction. Most of the information that is available 

 relates to export statistics and market prices. 



As regards the West Indies, in August 1904, a rjL.acre 

 plot was planted at the Antigua Botanic Station with Natal 

 Capsicums. It -was reaped from Novcinber to March, and 

 yielded 113 J S). undried. Ordinary red peppers and yellow 

 Nepaul were planted at the Nevis Botanic Station on -j„-acre. 

 The crop was dried, and 64 Bb. of dried Xepaul peppers were 

 sold in London at £2 lis. per cwt. A barrel of dried Nepaul 



peppers sent later sold at £t per cwt. In the West Indies 

 the cultivation of Capsicums requires only ordinary care. 

 The land should be ploughed, forked, and if necessary 

 manured. The seeds are sown in a seed bed, and the seedlings 

 transplanted readily. They should be set out at about 2 feet 

 by 2 feet. Weeding, watering and moulding up may all be 

 required. The fruit begins to ripen in about four months. 

 {Afiricultural Neus, \o\. V, p. 405.) 



When quite ripe the fruit is picked and dried quickly in 

 trays by sun and wind. They lose about 70 per cent, of 

 their weight on drying, about 2 per cent, by the removal of 

 their stalks before shipping, and 6 or 7 per cent, more by the 

 removal of discoloured specimens. Great care has to be 

 exercised in the matter of picking the fruit: only when 

 they are fully ripe should they be gathered, and it 

 is also necessary to remember that the careful removal 

 of Etalk.s and dirt may make a very great difference 

 to the price obtained. As an example of this, the case 

 may be quoted of a sample of Capsicum fruits grown in 

 Rhodesia which was submitted to brokers in London, who 

 valued the sample at 25*-. per cwt., adding that if the stalks 

 had been removed before shipment the product would have 

 been worth about 355. per cwt. (June 1912). 



MANORIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH 

 COCO-NUTS. 



The second year's results of the manurial experiments 

 with coco-nuts under the control of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture are described in the Bulletin of the Departinent o/ 

 A'jriculture, Trinidad and Tobago (January 1914). After 

 pointing out the inadvisability of drawing conclusions from 

 the results of a single year the author states that in calculat- 

 ing the yield and cost of manuring per acre it was assumed 

 that there were seventy-five trees to the acre; also the price 

 of 'selects' was fixed at .'?25 and that of culls at $15 per 

 1,000. 



In looking through the tables of figures it would seem 

 that the application of lime and kainit is likely to prove 

 a sound investment, for though the gain on the employment 

 of the manure is small (about •'?3 per acre on an average) it is 

 nevertheless fairly general throughout the series. In the case 

 of Table VI (Kings Bay estate, Tobago) it is noticed that all 

 the manured plots gave a larger increase than the average of 

 the controlled plots and the pecuniary results were satis- 

 factory. For instance the application of 2 ft. of superphos- 

 phate of lime and 1 lb. of sulphate of potash per tree gave 

 a profit on no manure of nearly $28 per acre. Two factors 

 have to be considered, however, when interpreting these 

 results, namely, that the rainfall was much heavier than in 

 the case of the other estates and also the trees were rather 

 younger (twenty-one to twenty-six years old compared with 

 thirty-one to thirty-six years old on the other plantations). 



In order to render regular the germination of palm oil 

 seed {Elaeis f/itineensis), the Journal d' Agriculture Tropicale 

 (November 1913) quotes the following procedure as useful, 

 from Pflan-.er (No. 17, 1912): The fruit should be put 

 in a box and left for about a week. In due course 

 the temperature of the seeds will rise and fermentation 

 will set in. These seeds will germinate then very regularly. 

 The result is attributed in part to the disappearance of oil 

 which facilitates the entrance of the water necessary to the 

 development of the grain, and as well to the temperature 

 which seems to exercise a stimulating action on the 

 germination. 



